Statutory city

A Statutory city ("Statutarstadt" in Austria, or "Statutární město" in Czech Republic) is a city with its own municipal law or city statute.

Austria

In Austria, a city can request this status if it has more than 20,000 inhabitants. After the state government and the Federal Government agree to grant the status, it is granted as long as it does not endanger any national interests. However, this is not always the case as there are smaller "Statutarstädte" which were granted this right previously for historical reasons. In particular, the cities of Eisenstadt and Rust, which previously belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary as free cities, retained their own city statutes in 1921. The Statutarstädte were called urban areas and were treated according to the German Gemeindeordnung during the period of German occupation, and as such were given no power over their own municipal constitution.

Besides local administration, the responsibilities of a Statutarstadt are to manage the "Bezirk" (English: district), which places the Statutarstadt besides the municipal office as district administration authorities. The mayor is the head of the municipality as well as the head of the district administrative authority.

Statutarstädte in Austria are:

* Eisenstadt ("since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1648)"
* Graz
* Innsbruck
* Klagenfurt ("since 1850")
* Krems ("since 1938")
* Linz ("since 1866")
* Rust ("since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1681")
* Salzburg ("since 1869")
* St. Pölten ("since 1922")
* Steyr ("since 1867")
* Villach ("since 1932")
* Waidhofen an der Ybbs ("since 1868")
* Wels ("since 1964")
* Vienna ("since 1850")
* Wiener Neustadt ("since 1866")

Czech Republic

There is a very similar model in the Czech Republic (derived from its origin in Austria-Hungary), where there are 23 Statutory Cities defined by law, in addition to Prague, the capital city which is a de-facto Statutory City.

Statutory Cities in the Czech Republic are:
*Brno
*České Budějovice
*Děčín
*Frýdek-Místek
*Havířov
*Hradec Králové
*Chomutov
*Jihlava
*Karlovy Vary
*Karviná
*Kladno
*Liberec
*Mladá Boleslav
*Most
*Olomouc
*Opava
*Ostrava
*Pardubice
*Plzeň
*Prague "(de facto)"
*Přerov
*Teplice
*Ústí nad Labem
*Zlín

Other countries

A similar concept in Germany is called "Stadtkreis" or "Kreisfreie Stadt", but these cities, such as Munich, do not have a municipal constitution - they use the Gemeindeordnung, a state law differing from Bundesland to Bundesland. In the English-speaking world, especially in the U.S. state of Virginia, a similar concept is known as independent city.

References